Your gundam builds are turning out well Sev. I always wanted to do Char the Red Comet himself but never got around to it. Now I gotta compare my old 2E Gundam Mech builds to yours. I guess I have no need to convert them from 2E now with your great 3E builds.

HustlerOne wrote:Your gundam builds are turning out well Sev. I always wanted to do Char the Red Comet himself but never got around to it. Now I gotta compare my old 2E Gundam Mech builds to yours. I guess I have no need to convert them from 2E now with your great 3E builds.

Thanks for the praise Hustler, though I'm still feeling iffy on how to build the important NPCs. Right now, I've got Char pretty much complete, save for building one more of his mobile suits to show off different suits he has as potential options. Char has an "extensive wardrobe" so to speak, and I'm trying to make each one of his suits seem fairly different.

Complications:Enemy: Char has various enemies throughout his life, but during the One Year War his number one is the Federation.Motivation (Patriotism): Char fights for Zeon and the right to rule space.Quirk: Almost every mobile suit Char pilots (with the exception of two) have been painted red. Its kinda his thing.Relationship: Char has various connections throughout the war, including Sayla Mass and Lalah Sune. Responsibility: Soldier of the Principality of ZeonRivalry: Amuro RaySecret: Char is actually Casval Rem Deikun, rightful ruler of Zeon

My goodness, I thought I'd never get him up on the thread, but here he is. Char Aznable, the Red Comet himself is a beast compared to the standard mobile suit infantry. Not only does he have two whole PL over the competition, but he's got Newtype senses, an extra rank of Luck, a slew of Complications (meaning he'll never be without a hero point) and Luck Control just to represent how legendary he is. After all he had to take down five battlecrusiers single-handed to earn it, so I don't think its out of the question. This is Char at the beginning of the One Year War, and honestly I was going to give him other mobile suits (custom red of course) as options but I was just so excited to get him posted that I couldn't wait. I'll probably have him as at least one or two more separate builds (for his Quattro/Char's Counterattack phases), but right now this should be a decent representation of Zeon's first son.

EDIT: Forgot to give Mr. Zeon himself the Attractive advantage, which I usually don't throw onto a lot of folks, but hey I was reminded that he was the prettiest man in Gundam until Wing.EDIT: Taking some advice added two ranks of Deception. Now Char is an even 180pp, despite being undercapped for PL 12.

Last edited by Severance on Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:40 pm, edited 6 times in total.

The lack of Attractive seems strange, to me anyway, Char was renowned as one of the prettiest men in the Gundam franchise until those lads from Gundam Wing showed up. But other than that, looks great...

Batgirl III wrote:The lack of Attractive seems strange, to me anyway, Char was renowned as one of the prettiest men in the Gundam franchise until those lads from Gundam Wing showed up. But other than that, looks great...

Zeig Zeon!

omg, you're totally right! I forgot that in all my haste that he was suppose to be very handsome. Editing begins now!

Sticking two Power Points onto his build would make him an even 180PP... so, if you pushed him to PL12, he's be an under-capped but legal PC. With the PL bump, he could easily swap out for different weapon load-outs on his various mecha.

Attractive (1) makes sense, he's a stunningly handsome man but doesn't often make use of it (but he does lay on the charm when he needs to). Add Deception 2, mostly so he can bluff in diplomatic settings, and I think he'd be about perfect.

It's Char the Red Comet! He is truly an iconic archetype of his own. I personally think his presence shouldhave been a bit higher. That and a rank or two in inspire. He was a charismatic orator and highly feared in the Gundam universe. He rightfully deserves to be at high PL: 12.

Although I might be thinking more about his future version by the time of Char's counterattack. The one where he gave that big speech about humanity. On the bright side you handled his newtype powers very well. I loved that you were able to do the Gelgoog since it was supposedly the Zeon answer to the Gundam. All in all Sev a great build with pretty much the way I pictured Char.

Thanks for the comments! Yeah, initially I had thought about giving Char at least a Presence 3, but I figured that at the time he was a soldier of Zeon he wasn't that high (he still has fairly high skills for Persuasion and stuff. I mean combined with Attractive, its no wonder Lalah Sune fell for his ideas). I felt that the inspiring Char was the one from Char's Counterattack, where he'd have a couple ranks in Inspire higher Presence (perhaps around 4), a couple more ranks in Persuasion and higher Tactics.

During the period covered by Mobile Suit Gundam, Char is deeply into his icy, chessmaster phase. He's keeping some deep secrets from the Zabis and hasn't really yet dealt with his bagage... even much later in the Gundam timeline, after he's gone public with his identity and forged himself into a leader of men, he never really develops much inthe way of empathy.

Even in his most sympathetic moments, when he's passed from villain to anti-villain to anti-hero, Char still comes off as kind of an ice cold jerk. So, I'd probably give "Zeta" Char high persuasion and a decent deception, but his raw Presence is always kinda low...

Gihren Zabi on the other hand dials the charisma up to 11... but considering he gets explicitly compared to Adolf Hitler by his father and both men see this as a positive trait. Well, the Zabis are hella screwed up... but they're the bad guys so it's okay.

Complications:Enemy: The Principality of ZeonQuirk: Amuro can occasionally get caught up in his interest in machines. This can cause him to lose track of time and even forget such things as food or sleep. After becoming part of the White Base crew, this wanes some, though mostly because he's working on the Gundam quite a bit.Relationship: The entire White Base crew is like Amuro's surrogate familyResponsibility: Amuro must protect the White Base at all costs and stop the Zeon's war.Rivalry: Char Aznable

What would a series be without statting out its main protagonist? Amuro Ray is the basic prototype for all Gundam main characters that come before him, literally falling into the Gundam and becoming an unwilling participant in a war that he never wanted. He soon finds reason to fight to protect the ones he cares for, but really he's just an unfortunate case of being drafted into the Federation's side. On top of it all his burgeoning Newtype abilities are causing him to slowly further himself from humanity as he strives to save it. But that is a story for another time, as right now Amuro is simply fighting to stay alive.

Amuro is probably the only other PL 12 I'd have from the first Mobile Suit Gundam. In comparison to Char, he's more accurate, but not as skilled at war. He's a gifted young man, very focused into technology (which will only increase as the series go on), but not very deft in social situations (thus the lower Presence and people skills).

For a good deal of the show, its the Gundam itself which gives Amuro the capability to last (Char once mentions how he gave a beating to the Gundam that would have destroyed any other mobile suit), equipped with an advanced learning computer which gathers combat data to increase the performance of the machine along with state of the art weaponry. The Gundam also has two systems which make it different than other mobiles suits at the time. One is the capability to re-enter the atmosphere unaided. The second is the Core Block System, which lets the Gundam's main section separate in order for the pilot to escape while saving the main computer of the unit, which can then be attached to another unit. I represented this with a simple Feature that basically acts like the Metamorph feat from the Morph power. I would basically use the fighter jet from the core book with only the machine guns equipped to represent the Core Fighter itself.

Last edited by Severance on Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Figured that I'd throw out another Gundam build, this time the Gouf land type mobile suit. It seems to be easier to just build the suits separate from the actual pilots (at least for me). Seeing as how it was designed for Earth-based combat, the Gouf doesn't come with the Flight systems equipped on the others, though it is extremely deadly in its intended use of close combat. Its really just a modified Zaku all things considered. Its most famous pilot was Ramba Ral ("This is no Zaku boy! No Zaku!")

Also with this build I've figured out that I like the new quirk I added for Growth on mobile suits. Instead of adding onto the Strength and Stamina directly, the Growth replaces the pilot's stats. Feels more like the Mecha and Manga book that way (as I liked its mech building rules).

Last edited by Severance on Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm loving the Gundam builds, but if I may suggest a tweak, I think the Laser Communications system(s) you built are too good. In the series these laser signals are limited to relatively short ranges and require line-of-sight; On the other hand, these messages are very difficult for enemies to intercept. I'd tack on the Limited [Line of Sight] flaw and Subtle (1) extra.

Most mobile suits (and presumably mobile armors and other military vehicles) also have a "contact link," as an alternative means of short-range voice communication. When two mobile suits come into direct physical contact with each other sound can be transmitted between them via vibrations in their outer armor. Unlike radio communications or lasers conversations transmitted in this way are almost impossible to intercept. (Radio is also blocked by Minovsky particles and lasers can be futz with by smoke.)

Batgirl III wrote:I'm loving the Gundam builds, but if I may suggest a tweak, I think the Laser Communications system(s) you built are too good. In the series these laser signals are limited to relatively short ranges and require line-of-sight; On the other hand, these messages are very difficult for enemies to intercept. I'd tack on the Limited [Line of Sight] flaw and Subtle (1) extra.

Most mobile suits (and presumably mobile armors and other military vehicles) also have a "contact link," as an alternative means of short-range voice communication. When two mobile suits come into direct physical contact with each other sound can be transmitted between them via vibrations in their outer armor. Unlike radio communications or lasers conversations transmitted in this way are almost impossible to intercept. (Radio is also blocked by Minovsky particles and lasers can be futz with by smoke.)

Anoother funny little bit of trivia from "8th MS Team" (possibly the best spin-off of the original Gundam). To prevent the jamming effect caused by Minovsky particles, many ground based unit have switched back to comlines for static communication between vehicles and sonars for detection. During te series each MS Team had a dedicated support vehicle equipped with a ground-based sonar to detect incoming enemy units.

These are all good suggestions. I actually didn't know the part about ground based sonar, as I haven't watched 08th MS yet (trying to watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam first). I actually knew about the contact communication via vibration, but I figured that could be handwaved as a description for general talking during close range for the players, or I could tack it on as a Feature. I've only really seen it done a couple times actually.

However, I will throw the Limited and Subtle onto the Laser Comm power, as it is a little too good left how it is.